Vic hepatitis doctor loses appeal bid

A VICTORIAN doctor who infected 55 of his female patients with hepatitis C has lost his bid to appeal against his sentence.

Lawyers for James Latham Peters argued his 14-year jail term fell outside the acceptable range and was disproportionate to his crimes.

The 63-year-old former anaesthetist was given a non-parole period of 10 years by the Victorian Supreme Court in March after pleading guilty to 55 counts of negligently causing serious injury.

The Victorian Court of Appeal on Friday rejected his bid to appeal against the sentence.

Court of Appeal president Justice Chris Maxwell said the sentence was unimpeachable.

"In my opinion it is not reasonably arguable that the sentence was disproportionate," he said.

Peters infected 55 women with hepatitis C in 2008 and 2009, when he was working at a Croydon abortion clinic while addicted to the drug he was administering.

In a bid to hide his drug use from colleagues, he would inject himself with the opiate Fentanyl before using the same needle to administer the rest of the dosage to the patient.

Justice Maxwell said Peters' level of moral culpability was very high, and his crimes had involved grave breaches of trust.

"On each of the 55 occasions there was a breach of the duty of care," he said.

Peters' lawyer John Dickinson SC had argued that the sentence fell outside the acceptable range.

"The sentence has got out of line with the appropriate sentence for the criminality involved," he said.

Mr Dickinson said Peters would have immediately stopped injecting women with used needles if he knew that women had become infected.

"He did not know that his gross negligence was causing an injury," he said.

"He never knew he was committing a crime until that cluster (of hepatitis cases) was identified."

But Justice Maxwell said it was irrelevant when Peters had found out about his victims becoming infected.

During the hearing, Justice Maxwell said the continued nature of Peters' behaviour was an aggravating factor.

"It was repeated conduct which was part of a practice," he said.

Peters' victims are now suing him, the director of the abortion clinic and the Victorian Medical Board.

The women now face an increased risk of suffering cirrhosis of the liver and liver cancer.

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